


First Kiss

by Gryffindorian2014



Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-19 01:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13112502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryffindorian2014/pseuds/Gryffindorian2014
Summary: What if Fakir made a crucial change in Duck's tale for very selfish reasons?





	1. Prologue

It had been ten years since Gold Crown Town ceased to be a mere stage for the crafty Drosselmeyer's stories. The town had been infused with new life ever since the five-gate boundary isolating it from the entire world was broken down by a duck. Yes, a mere duck who transformed into Princess Tutu to save the lives of everyone from the clutches of the storyteller.

Ten long and lonely years without her.

The lake just outside town, however, remained a quiet place. That was where Fakir found himself often, sitting alone by the lake, thinking of Ahiru. Ever since Mytho returned to the story, Fakir had felt strangely alone. He missed Mytho, sure, but Ahiru, oh dear, Ahiru had left an endless void. In the ten years, Fakir had watched the little duckling grow into a swan, the light of recognition in her eyes had gradually decreased. All this was the result of his rewriting, he knew. Fakir had reverted the town to humanity. Animals were back to where they belonged, and humans repopulated the town. Fakir had intelligence enough to realize that he had done the right thing. He could almost see Ahiru nod her approval with unending vigour. But it was his heart that couldn't let Ahiru go. Her deep blue eyes, her long braid of flaming red. Her warmth against his heart when she leapt out of Drosselmeyer's control and straight into his arms. How could he ever live on without her?

He believed his magic talent to write stories that came true had died with the loss of Ahiru and Mytho, it was because he was coward enough to choose to live, that was the only reason why he was alone now. Fakir's dark green eyes sprung open and a stray tear escaped. He had to try, he needed to try. Once.  
Trembling with trepidation for the unexpected, Fakir's quill flew across the rough parchment: once again in a decade. He held his breath in fevered anticipation. His hand shook and tears blotted the ink in places. Undeterred, Fakir continued scratching his quill as fast as he could. He had to see her.

Nothing happened for a long time. Then,

The lake illumined with a soft, golden glow that filled Fakir with warmth.

Hope.

Fakir narrowed his eyes before focusing on the figure that was emerging from the light.


	2. Ahiru

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fakir and Ahiru reunite.

"Fakir…" half-whispered the voice he had come to love beyond reason.

Fakir lifted his eyes to look at her and his breath caught in his chest. There she was, a little taller, fuller and enticingly rounder in parts, her flaming red hair flowing out in waves around her till her knees. Her sapphire eyes had a deep ocean blue in them now. Fakir didn't even realize he was staring. His old self would've kicked himself for staring at this idiot. But it had been more than ten years now and Fakir was beyond trying to fool himself about his feelings for her. But he didn't know how she felt about him. Yet.

"Fa-Fakir?" she called again as if re-assuring herself of his presence, in reality, he was the one who was supposed to do so.

Fakir stood transfixed. He had waited so long, so very, very long for this moment; imagining every possible way he'd encounter her, everything idea a little grander than the last. He hadn't expected her to appear so soon. It was almost as if she was waiting all this while for him too.

"A…Ahiru?"

His hated the way his voice trembled and cursed himself for not having the courage to go up and hold her in his arms, the way he had dreamt of all these years. He wanted nothing more than to hold her, inhale her comforting fragrance and look into those endless pools of blue.

"Ahiru and Fakir lovey-dovey, zura?!" piped a well-known voice suddenly, effectively bringing the two out of their reverie. Belatedly Fakir realized that Ahiru was standing right in front of him with only her hands crossed in front of her, completely unaware of the fact that she was stark naked. He blushed scarlet and took an about turn. Ahiru still seemed clueless about her state. It was as if living away from humanity for so long has literally stripped her of the norms of civilization.

"Idiot. You really are a duck, aren't you?" Fakir managed to blurt out, reddening to his tips.

"Huh?" she mused, she sounded hurt, and “Fakir?" she whispered softly, taking a step towards him, "am I really not a duck anymore?"

The vulnerability in her tone touched him, and he almost turned when Uzura suddenly screamed, beating her drum "Clothes, zura! Duck, zura!"

At that Ahiru's eyes widened in shock "Fakiiiiiiiiiiiir! Why didn't you tell me!" she squealed before jumping back into the water.

"Idiot."

 

* * *

 

 

Fakir watched Ahiru with amusement as she practically gobbled the eggs and bread he had served her. Although she did it with more restraint than before, she was still eating like she had never eaten before.

“Human food!” she said enthusiastically in between mouthfuls, “I never thought I would taste eggs again…ever!”

“Would Duck zura want some more eggs?” Uzura piped, poking her head through the kitchenette’s service window.

“Yes please!"

 

* * *

 

 

"So...how exactly did...this happen?"

Ahiru asked, setting her glass of tea down and consciously picking at her makeshift attire made wrapping herself in Fakir's bedclothes.

"Erm..." Fakir started, still unused to her presence and deeply distracted by her state of undress.

"Fakir?" she asked again, cocking her head to the side, "Are you okay?"

The sound of Uzura's amused giggle brings him back to the present.

"What?! Oh, Yes!" he replies, snapping out of his thoughts and clearing his throat while blushing furiously.

When he looks at Ahiru's eyes to answer her question, he finds her blushing and looking away. Smiling fondly to himself, he clears his throat ones again, instigating her to look at him as he begins his story but consciously leaves out the reasons why he did what he did.

Honestly, Ahiru was the last person who needed to know how he was selfishly motivated to bring her back into existense. How it was because he couldn't think of a life without her and he hadn't thought about the possible consequences of his doing what he did. Not only would that show him to be weak but he was most afraid of losing Ahiru, he was worried about what she would think about him if she knew the truth.

"But won't this change everything? I mean..." She trailed off, unsure.

The same insecurity that haunted Fakir, now came back, gnawing at his heart, he turned away from her and towards the window, looking at the late afternoon sun and listening to Uzura's consistent humming over the clang of utensils.

_What if Ahiru was right? What if it changed things, in a way that he was in no control of._

But, he thought again.

_He_ was Drosselmeyer, after all.

 

* * *

 

 

When they are finally alone, Fakir turns to look at her only to find her already looking at him, the fading light outlines her form seated at the window, her eyes sparkling in the dim light and her hair a flaming red.

“Ahiru…” he whispers, drawing himself near her and gently touching her hair and then her even more gently, her face.

She watches him quietly, her eyes searching his face wildly, and a strange vulnerability in her features.

“I’ve meant to tell you for so long now…” he says, his voice breaking and tears prickling in his eyes, mirroring hers.

“ _Oh_ , Fakir…” she says softly, touching her forehead to his and closing her eyes. “I know, I know.”

Fakir takes it as his cue, and inclines his face for his nose to touch hers, he hears Ahiru inhale sharply and slowly edges his lips towards her. They're so close, he can feel her nervous breath, he only hopes he has the courage to go through with this.

He's a millimetre's breadth from finally kissing her when Uzura's extremely loud drum banging and sudden appearance outside their window, push them apart as if struck by lightning.

"Love-dovey, zura?" she giggles louder still.


	3. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gold Crown Town begins to change, again!

Freya did not really care about anything in the world except for flowers. She believed in them, she watered them, loved them as if they weren’t just flowers grown for human amusement. Her flowers were as precious to her as a babe would have been, had she married and begot one.

She understood life through the profound knowledge that the flowers, swaying gently in her unending garden, imparted. She understood the transience of life through the rare Neelakurinji, which bloomed once in twelve years; the fragility of humans through the wild seasonal orchids, the delicate nature of mortals through African violets and she learnt of both pride and jealousy through her roses.  
Sighing contently, Freya set down the sprinkler and lay down on the flattened piece of grass, folding her hands behind her head and staring at the clear blue sky. And she soon fell asleep, exhausted from tending to her garden.

Freya was awoken by the familiar voice of her only friend, Rina. Although Freya wasn’t the one who sought her company, Rina was a very pleasant girl from the academy and she kept visiting her cottage on her own accord, sometimes bringing freshly baked and the most delicious blackcurrant buns.  
Freya stayed on her back, watching the sky, she only turned to look when the familiar smell of the buns reached her. And despite her incurious nature, she found herself quietly wondering at Rina’s uncannily dark and thick nails, even her eyes seemed to have shrunk and she had more body hair than Freya seemed to remember.

“What are you looking at me for, like that?” Rina asked, her tongue seemed longer and narrower and her usual dark brown eyes almost black, with a bitter undercurrent to them. Even her tone was not as cheerful as usual.

_What was it? Freya wondered._

“Nothing.” She said gently, in her far-away voice. In any case, she didn’t mind strangeness.

 

* * *

 

Uzura walked towards the mist, her drumbeats faint under the oppressive fog. She would’ve been unable to see if her eyes weren’t made of wood.  
  
  
The thickness of the fog was somewhat dispersed by the lake’s unusually turbulent waters.

  
“Uzura zura…” Uzura announced, quietened by the heavy moist air surrounding her.

  
Slowly, from the centre of the lake, a swirling mass of black began to break out into the surface, causing the turbulence. It looked like smoke from a candle but heavier and tangible.

  
“You are only an agent…” a voice, emerging from the mass, whispered, the sound like rough water on sharp boulders with a hollow ringing. “You cannot get attached…”

  
“Unattached zura?”

  
“Yes…” hissed the voice, “Do you understand?”

  
“Understand zura.” She repeats, her blue eyes curiously hazy.

 

* * *

 

“That’s strange…” said Angela, who was a newcomer in the academy to Lily, who happened to be sitting beside her, “I don’t remember seeing our Teacher with a tail before—come to think of it, I’ve never seen any human being with a tail before. Don’t you think it’s weird?”

“It is if you think it is,” Lily replied without paying any attention and yawning covertly behind her hand. “He is called Mr. Cat, after all.”

“Yes, but…”

But Lily’s mind had already wandered off to daydreaming about her warm, unmade bed in the student wing.

 

* * *

 

Ahiru absentmindedly stretched her other hand for the newspaper stand while grabbing the bottle of milk from the milkman. She paid him in change and dragged herself back to the table. Supporting her head with one arm, Ahiru sleepily turned the pages of the daily and sipped at the foam of her sweetened milk tea.

“Hey” Said Fakir, coming through the half-open door and shutting it behind him, Ahiru blushed a little self-consciously but greeted him without ceremony. He seemed a little quiet today. Not that Fakir talked much at all, but there was a visible tension in his furrowed brows and a rather stiff walk.

“Is something wrong? Are you alright?!” Ahiru asked, already bursting with concern.

“Hm?” he answered without looking at her, “…No. I don’t know. I don’t suppose it’s anything to be worried about, but all the same…” Fakir continued, holding her hands in his in order to calm her down and taking his seat beside her, looking into her with unsettled eyes, “There’s something happening in town. It feels strange.”

“Strange?”

“Yes, there was the thickest of fogs this morning, at the town’s border, most untimely and one couldn’t see a thing.”

“That is strange…” sighed Ahiru, a sudden frisson of worry coiling tightly in her stomach.

She had felt it too, come to think of it, she did think there was something wrong with the milkman. She hadn’t paid much attention but his ears had seemed to flop out of his cap like a dog’s and his nose was rather short. Although she hadn’t seen the fog Fakir was talking about, she had felt…different. As if something had shifted in the town’s air overnight. And a small feeling of guilt crept up her spine. Ahiru felt as if it was something to do with _her_ return, somehow.

 

* * *

 

 

Unseen by all, concealed, far outside the five gates of Gold Crown Town, the swirling black mass stilled in the shape of a circle. It hung, without support, in mid-air, like a black disc held upright by its edge by phantom strings. And, for a long time, nothing happened.

  
Then the portal seemed to suddenly expand enormously and then explode soundlessly, causing a burst of white lights the seemed to swallow the entire surface of the lake before immediately shrinking into a tiny speck. A sudden gust of wind began dissipating the thick fog and the tiny speck few over the wall and came to rest in a bird bath. 

At sunset, when one of the birds disturbed the water in the bath by drinking from it, a black speck unfurled and shaped itself into a single, long, pitch black feather.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR, in advance!


End file.
